Portland: TV pricing jumps smartly

In Portland, a healthy media economy has led to TV spending increases of 3 to 5 percent over a year ago, with unit pricing up as much as 10 percent in high-demand dayparts.
 
Demand is coming from a variety of categories, including automotive, telecom and financial, while the retail and fast food categories have decreased spending versus a year ago.
 
Political spending is also squeezing inventory in Portland, but unlike in many big cities, that money isn't coming from the presidential race. Oregon tends to vote Democratic, so it's attracting little money from either presidential candidate.

The political dollars coming from state and local races.
 
"November races include Oregon House of Representatives, attorney general, secretary of state, state treasurer and Portland city mayor," says one buyer. "Political ads put an inventory squeeze on all news programming, and this squeeze is expected to increase as we move towards November."
 
The late fringe daypart is seeing high demand, but buyers may be able to find deals in the daytime and early fringe dayparts.
 
News is by far the most in-demand in this election year, led by NBC affiliate KGW and Fox affiliate KPTV. In fact, five telecasts of KPTV's 10 p.m. newscast were among the market's top 17 programs among total viewers during the week ended July 22, according to Nielsen, a rare feat in most local people meter markets.
 
Portland radio conditions are similar to TV, with spending and pricing up mid- to high-single-digits. Political won't be a huge factor outside of the top commercial news/talk station, Clear Channel's KEX-AM.
 
Overall, Clear Channel has a strong hold on the market, with three of the city's top four radio stations in April, May and June according to Arbitron ratings. Finishing on top in each of those months was the company's soft adult contemporary station, KKCW-FM. It averaged an 8.2 average-quarter-hour rating over that three-month period.
 
Still, there are a lot of competitive radio stations in Portland, which is good from a buyer's perspective.
 
"Portland is a healthy market," says a buyer. "There are multiple strong-performing stations in the market, and this helps with negotiations."
 

Tags: ad spending portland, automotive, clear channel, dayparts, KATU, KGW, KOIN, KPTV, local ad spending, market profile, political, portland ad spending, portland economy, portland market profile, radio, tv